


I Studied the Blade

by imaginary_golux



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Society for Creative Anachronism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29349630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Finn does not mean for the video to go viral.Unfortunately, both Rey and her mysterious opponent are extremely photogenic...
Relationships: Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Phasma/Rey (Star Wars)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49
Collections: February Ficlet Challenge 2021: Apocalypse No





	I Studied the Blade

Finn does not mean for the video to go viral.

He’s posted videos of Rey’s practices before, with her amused approval (and thank _fuck_ he got a dismissive but definite go-ahead from her opponent), but though Rey is _always_ poetry in motion, the videos have never quite gotten the same sort of astonishing reaction as this one did.

Rey is a very good fighter, fast and agile and ruthless, and her chosen weapon - a quarterstaff - is unusual enough that many opponents find it hard to counter. The newcomer, however, who is in full plate with a really rather impressive broadsword, matches her blow for blow, and the whole video is nearly ten minutes long before Finn trims it to three minutes of just the exciting bits.

It ends in a draw, and then - Finn thinks this may be the bit that caught everyone’s attention - Rey and her opponent both tug off their helmets to reveal long hair and unmistakably feminine features, like a stunning dual rendition of Eowyn’s dramatic challenge to the Witch-King of Angmar. (Yes, Finn has watched that movie too many times.)

Rey and her opponent clasp hands, both grinning broadly, and say something the video doesn’t catch; as far as Finn can tell, it was something on the lines of ‘Nice bout,’ because that’s the sort of thing Rey says after a fight like that one.

Anyhow. Finn edits and posts the video and goes to bed, and wakes up the next morning to discover that it has abruptly, inexplicably, and rather terrifyingly become _really really popular_. And a good eighty percent of the comments are people suggesting that Rey and her terrifyingly attractive opponent ought to kiss.

Finn stares at that for a while, and then goes out to find Rey sitting at the kitchen table, hunched over her coffee, as she usually is in the morning. She gives him a bleary-eyed glare. Finn rolls an orange towards her - she’s always happier if she has fruit - and tries to figure out how best to admit that he’s inadvertently made her an internet sensation, on a small but still rather distressing scale.

It turns out he doesn’t need to broach the subject: when Rey has finished her coffee and the orange, she says, “Why did I wake up to a text from Rose that’s entirely made of exclamation points and sword emojis?”

Finn sighs and hauls out his phone.

Rey watches the whole video, humming thoughtfully, and then scrolls down to the comments. Her eyebrows rise.

“Well,” she says at last. “That explains the text.”

Three days later, the same terrifying woman agrees to spar with Rey again. Finn watches as they approach each other, wondering exactly how badly this is going to go. The actual _sparring_ goes fine - Rey and her opponent are beautifully matched - and then, once they’ve shaken hands, Rey grins in the way that Finn knows means she’s about to do something that’s going to either end terribly or wonderfully, and says, “So! Apparently half the internet thinks we’re boning.”

Her opponent raises one blonde eyebrow and smirks. “Well now,” she says. “Buy me a drink, and maybe we’ll make that true.”

Finn decides discretion is the better part of valor, and leaves Rey to it.

(Three years later, he posts a follow-up picture to his one and only viral video: two women, one tall and blonde, one shorter and brunette, both in beautifully-tailored suits, kissing over a crossed broadsword and quarterstaff. The caption reads, “Well, for once, the comments were right.”)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the FFC prompt "Viral," and beta'd by my glorious Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.


End file.
